Whats your workflow for designing albums?

I was just wondering what everyone's workflow is for designing press printed albums.

I just made one and it seemed like I wasted a bit of time trying to get things organized. I purchased a template a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to making an 18 page book *I know whcc gives you 20 but I just didnt have enough images for 20*

One thing I had to do was put each template into a folder in the psd file so I could easily drag it over to a template file to design a page. I wont have to do this next time. The reason I did this is because the template was for an 8.5x12 book, and I wanted to make a 5x7 page.

Then it took a while to figure out what page arrangements I wanted to make. I went through the images I was going to use and sorted them into groups, this let me know how many pages I needed to make. Then I looked at each group and went through teh templates and picked 2 matching pages for each set. I didnt use the order the templates came in because sometimes they had 5 images for the 2 pages but theres only 3 I wanted to use, or two. etc.

But I also modified each page, if I liked one pages design, but it had room for 4 images and I only wanted two, I erased two of them and sized them, changed the location on the page, even adjusted the background colors with hue/saturation to make the colors match the images better. For example, a page with the boy, I changed the pink to a blue.

So to make an 18 page 5x7 book *page 1 and 18 didnt have any images, just a texture* it took me a few hours. I dont know if thats slow or fast for this sort of thing. I think next time Ill crop the images before I drag them over to the template, it was annoying having to zoom out to see the image edges to be able to transform them into a smaller image.

Photojunction, free and excellent

I use InDesign with Bridge. I don't like being constrained by the use of template programs.

The thing I like about photoshop templates is you can modify them easily. If the colors are girly and the book is for a boy, select the right layer, add a hue/sat layer and adjust the hue to a boyish color. if it has a spot for 4 images but only 2 images fit the page, hide 2 of them, and resize the other 2, using guides to make sure they line up. Dont like the right page of a set, take the left page, rotate it 180 degrees and change the positioning of the images and it matches but is different.

msfvirginia wrote in post #10757055
The thing I like about photoshop templates is you can modify them easily. If the colors are girly and the book is for a boy, select the right layer, add a hue/sat layer and adjust the hue to a boyish color. if it has a spot for 4 images but only 2 images fit the page, hide 2 of them, and resize the other 2, using guides to make sure they line up. Dont like the right page of a set, take the left page, rotate it 180 degrees and change the positioning of the images and it matches but is different.

The problem with designing in PS is the file size tends to get huge and unmanageable depending on the amount of effects and misc items added to each page. When I was forced to design in PS, the file sizes were regularly 150-200 megs. Those sizes tend to slow things way down.

I dont mind psd's that are < 500mb, well I do mind the hd space, but its a normal thing I think. My laptop doesnt slow down that much for it.

msfvirginia wrote in post #10759266
I dont mind psd's that are < 500mb, well I do mind the hd space, but its a normal thing I think. My laptop doesnt slow down that much for it.

Do you encounter size/time issues when you upload huge files to the album producer or lab preparing the images?

I convert the psd to a jpg, and upload that to the lab. I dont know why a printing lab would want a psd. : )

msfvirginia wrote in post #10759804
I convert the psd to a jpg, and upload that to the lab. I dont know why a printing lab would want a psd. : )

You're absolutely right - I looked right past that part of the post.:o